Merle Haggard evidently had a big part in getting Brooks and Dunn back together.
Living country music legends Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks recently sat down for an episode of the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast to talk about their reunion, working with younger artists on their Reboot and Reboot II projects, how “Neon Moon” has become the quintessential Brooks and Dunn song, and much, much more. At some point in the conversation, another legendary name in country music came up.
Merle Haggard.
We asked the country music duo if they had any stories that were of interest, and that immediately led to them talking about the “Workin’ Man Blues.” As it turns out, Haggard had a big influence on Brooks and Dunn, and Merle was apparently always offering up help to Ronnie and Kix.
As Dunn explained in an anecdote about Merle stopping by a studio they were working in to – believe it or not – pitch them song ideas:
“Merle Haggard came in the studio one time when we were working here in town (in Nashville). And he goes, ‘You know, I’m a songwriter.’ He was kind of pitching songs. (We were) like, ‘You’re a songwriter? You’re Merle Haggard, man.’
As songwriters, I get where he was coming from because it’s the music that takes you there. It’s not your looks, or how you sing, it’s not all that. People used to ask us back in the beginning, ‘What would you want people to remember you by?’ It’s gonna be that music. That’s why we’re all here.”
Well said there, Ronnie.
Kix backed up that story with another, sharing that Haggard was always willing to help, and may have even been single-handedly responsible for getting the group back together after they split up in 2009:
“Merle was kind of a father figure to us. When we did decide we were going to take a break, we really at one time didn’t know if we were going to get back together or not. I just felt we were at that point in our lives. We needed to take a break from it.”
Merle, I was talking to him one day and he just said, ‘Hey, when are y’all getting back together?’ (I said), ‘I don’t know Merle.’ (Merle says), ‘Listen to me, y’all got a thing. You got a thing. Everybody doesn’t get to have a thing, okay? Y’all got one. Don’t waste that.’ I said, ‘Yes sir,’ and I was interviewing him, so I took that clip and sent it to Ronnie and said, ‘We need to figure this thing out.’”
Hard to argue with Merle on that one.
Or as Ronnie so elegantly put it:
“If Merle says you got a thing, you got a thing.”
So I guess we all have the late, great Merle Haggard to thank for giving country music fans more Brooks and Dunn. Whether you want to say they got back together in 2015 when they did a concert series with Reba in Las Vegas, or in 2019 when they put out their first edition Reboot, the most important thing is that they did reunite.
And now we have Reboot II to look forward to this Friday, but not before you check out the full episode of the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast with Brooks and Dunn: